In recognition of Black History Month, GE Research is shining a spotlight on our Black and African American talent and getting their opinions on diversity, representation, and belonging in the workplace. Today we hear from Michael Brown, the program manager for GE Research’s Government Relations organization. With a focus on healthcare, Michael develops and executes strategies that outline how GRC partners and collaborates with other organizations, including academia, industry, government, and commercial businesses. The intent is to forge partnerships to create innovative technologies that address current and future healthcare industry needs.
Michael has been with GE for 22 years and is a member of GE Research’s African American/Affinity Forum (AAF), an employee resource group that helps attract, promote, and develop diverse talent. In fact, Michael says the AAF was a major influence on his decision to join the company.
“I was working for a company in which two former GE employees had recently accepted positions. They spoke about starting an AAF-like organization at the company because they saw the value the organization brought to GE. Through them I learned a great deal about GE’s efforts in diversity.”
Today, Michael plays an active roll in AAF’s recruiting and retention efforts. He partners with GE’s recruitment teams to target diverse students by planning and hosting events at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and with university chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Michael also mentors colleagues from GE Research and GE’s businesses as well as individuals he connects with through his external work with organizations such as his fraternity (Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.) and 100 Black Men.
GE Research had a few questions for Michael:
What does diversity mean to you?
When I think of diversity I think of acceptance and truly valuing what a person brings to the table, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or background. I also think that diversity enables the best solutions to come forth. It allows for a collection of individuals with different beliefs, backgrounds, and approaches to look at a problem and see many ways to address it. The individuals, organizations, and companies that look for opportunities to pull together diverse perspectives provide the best solutions. At GRC, we owe it to our GE businesses and external customers to provide the best solutions to their problems. That’s why it is vital for us to embrace diversity.
How has diversity influenced your career?
Prior to joining GE, I worked for two companies that didn’t have diverse workforces. I saw the extraordinary efforts by individuals to ring the alarm and actively work to hire diverse individuals into engineering and leadership positions. It is through these individual efforts that I was hired into these companies, and it is the barriers that I witnessed these individuals break that continue to encourage and drive my efforts to push diversity within GE.
You do a lot of relationship building in your role with GE Research. What role do strong relationships play in building an inclusive workplace?
Relationships play a huge role in creating an inclusive workforce. I believe that with understanding comes acceptance. When I have been placed in environments where I worked with different groups of people, I was able to learn from them. These experiences not only helped me professionally, but it helped me personally and allowed me to grow as an individual.
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